System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: System Value Compared

System Builder Marathon, December 2011: The Articles

Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon.

Introduction

Bigger budgets make room for better hardware. Bigger cases facilitate more cooling. Bigger motherboards allow more cards to be installed.

And yet, somewhere along the way this quarter, that concept went horribly wrong. We ended up with a $1200 PC that underperformed its $1000 predecessor, a $600 PC that went way over budget, and a $2400 full-sized PC that never lived up to the high-expectations set by the microATX build upon which its hardware choices were based.

We're perhaps most sympathetic to the $600 gaming machine's budge woes, since its builder was most vulnerable to recent price surges. Those same price surges also hit the high-capacity drives used in the larger machines, but they weren't as disruptive as an overall percentage of the budgets. Besides, it’s hard to feel sorry for an over-achiever (Ed.: Haters gonna hate?).

Q4 2011 System Builder Marathon PC Components

$2400 Perfomance PC

$1200 Enthusiast PC

$600 Gaming PC

Processor

Intel Core i7-2600K3.4 - 3.8 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache

AMD FX-61003.3 - 3.9 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache

Intel Core i5-24003.1 - 3.4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache

Motherboard

MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3)LGA 1155, Intel Z68 Express

Biostar TA990FXESocket AM3+, AMD 990FX

MSI PH61A-P35LGA-1155, Intel H61 Express

Graphics

PNY VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPUPNY VCGGTX580XPB-LC (SLI)

2 x Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GDRadeon HD 6950 1 GB

Sapphire 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1 GB

Memory

Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8RDDR3-1600 C8, 4 GB x2 (8 GB)

Mushkin Redline 997013DDR3-1600 C7, 2 GB x2 (4 GB)

Wintec 3AMD31333-4G2K-NHRDDR3-1333 C9, 2 GB x2 (4 GB)

System Drive

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2128 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD

OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G60 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD

Seagate ST3500413AS500 GB, 7200 RPM HDD

Storage Drive

WD Caviar Green WD15EARS1.5 TB, 7200 RPM HDD

WD Caviar Black WD7501AALS750 GB, 7200 RPM HDD

Uses System Drive

Optical

LG WH12LS38 BD-RE12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R

Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD±R/W24x DVD±R, 48x CD-R

Samsung SH-222AB DVD±R/W22x DVD±R, 48x CD-R

Case

Fractal Design Arc Midi

Rosewill Challenger-U3

Xigmatek Asgard II

Power

Mushkin Joule MKNPSJL10001000 W, 80 PLUS Gold

Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2650 W, 80 PLUS Bronze

Antec EarthWatts EA430D430 W, 80 PLUS Bronze

Heat Sink

PNY XLR8 / Asetek Integrated Liquid Cooling

Xigmatek Gaia SD1283

Intel Boxed Cooler

Total Cost

$2325

$1267

$654

Concern about the fact that Paul Henningsen’s $600 PC wouldn't overclock at all was quickly squelched by its clean sweep in benchmark performance over the previous System Builder Marathon's overclocked $500 machine.